Unfortunately even as a member of the interlibrary loan team (who would probably end up putting the request through myself) I don’t get a discount. Enrolling at Linbury Court boarding school, Jennings (John Mitchell) and his sidekick Darbyshire (Derek Needs) wreaked all manner of harmless havoc, especially whenever they tried to match wits with fearsome headmaster Mr. Buckeridge’s style tends towards the farcical, but his books are laugh-out-loud funny – when reading these to myself I had to break off frequently and read the choicer passages aloud to my husband! As editor he was responsible for the exposure of the Tweed Ring and subsequently received a letter from Chester A.

When we were children, we were allowed to take a book to church to read through the meditative parts of the service and sermon.

The humour (and there is plenty of it) rests on misunderstandings resulting from Jennings’s literal-mindedness and impetuosity. The had unearthed the sensational story of how Atkinson had found a caterpillar in his cabbage; but as it had happened the term before last, they felt that this could hardly be headlined as late news.

Of course, I didn’t share this with friends – at my (highly academic) school we were also supposed to be young ladies preparing to become teachers (or if not so bright, secretaries) with neat handwriting – I always felt that Jennings didn’t fit. Jennings is full of ideas, and Darbishire follows, but neither of them are inclined too much to think through the consequences of their actions. It would hardly be fair, he decided, to let a decent chap like old Darbi snooze away the precious minutes of a red-letter day like this. Another series of six episodes – simply named Jennings with David Schulten in the title role – aired on the BBC in 1966.

All in all, Jennings Goes to School is an excellent read for both children and adults; splendid if you need something light and not too challenging, and want a good laugh. For outdoor ideas and inspiration near Jennings Dale, Derbyshire Dales check out our blog articles below. More Hamburger icon An icon used to represent a menu that can be toggled by interacting with this icon. Like Blyton’s school stories, the Jennings books are not adventures in the sense of the Famous Five or Adventure series, although very occasionally in both there are adventurous episodes. They are unusual in that few school stories were written to be deliberately humorous, and indeed the boys’ school story genre had long been in decline by the 50s.